


Holding onto You

by TheProudPrincess



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Romance, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, Comfort/Angst, Hugs, M/M, Post-Canon, Reunions, Teen Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:42:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27357454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheProudPrincess/pseuds/TheProudPrincess
Summary: JATP Week prompt: Favorite character povAlex searches for his ghost boyfriend
Relationships: Alex & Willie (Julie and The Phantoms)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 40
Collections: JATP Appreciation Week





	Holding onto You

**Author's Note:**

> I love appreciation weeks! They're incredibly fun to participate in and I'm planning to keep participating in this one! Anyways I had a hard time deciding who to write for bc I genuinely love all the characters but I ultimately chose Alex! 
> 
> It's been awhile since I've written in the first person so tell me what you thin! :)  
> Enjoy!

“Ok wait, so you’re telling me that record stores don’t really exist anymore?” Luke was shouting. Well, Julie had done it. She cancelled practice before it even started. I exchanged a look with Reggie which told me that he was thinking the same thing. 

“I mean they exist, but no one ever goes. I haven’t even gone. It’s just easier to buy music online. ” Julie explains with a shrug of her shoulders. Annnnddd Luke will be gone in 3, 2, 1...

“What? That’s insane. We’re going to one right now and I’m not taking any protests.” He lifts his guitar strap over his head then and carefully sets his guitar down. He grabs a hold of Julie’s wrist then and even though she protests, claiming that we need to be practicing for our next gig, which we do, but I can tell that she’s just playing into Luke’s little flirtatious game, although Luke would never admit that was the motive behind this all. 

He’s so dense sometime that it’s actually painful. You know, Willie taught me this “meme” I think is what it’s called, of someone having the last braincell and I’m pretty sure that person is me. I really don’t think Luke and Reggie could live without me. Well, ok maybe that’s the wrong choice of words considering we’re, you know, dead and all, but my point still stands. We may be dead, but they still can’t exist without me. 

Julie and Luke disappear out of the studio leaving me behind with Reggie. It’s quiet when it’s just me and him. Sometimes, I wonder how we’re friends. Don’t get me wrong, I love the guy, he’s like a brother to me, but he doesn’t always think. But, when I think like that, I just remind myself that I couldn’t imagine myself without both Luke and Reggie. 

“Well, I think I’m gonna go hang out with Ray. He usually watches this weird cooking show at this time even though I haven’t really seen him cook. It’ll be the best day ever when he actually does,” Reggies poofs out of the garage, but I had time to give him one of my “would it?” looks that I find myself giving to Reggie a lot of the time. 

As weird as it is to see him hanging out with Julie’s dad, I get it to some extent so I’m trying not to be too judgy with that friendship from now on. While Reggie’s parents supported him, they were always fighting. The amount of times that I would find the poor guy huddled on Luke’s couch at odd hours of the night because they were too loud really makes my heart clench up. It’s understandable why Reggie would be attracted to hanging out with Ray. He’s such a good and loving dad to Julie which is one thing that Reggie and Julie don’t have in common. 

Being left to my own devices usually freaks me out a bit because it just leaves me to think about all these questions and what-ifs. Like what if we were sent here to protect Julie? And if so what are we protecting her form? Caleb? And what if Caleb comes back? He definitely still has it out for us. It’s just a matter of time that he reappears in our afterlives. 

Ok so being left on my own still freaks me out a bit because I still, and always will, have so many questions, but now I'm just preoccupied with a certain long-haired, dreamy-eyed skateboarding ghost. The one I haven't seen since the night of The Orpheum. And it’s been stressing me out. Like my anxiety level was already at a 100 because of the whole “we need to cross-over and complete our unfinished business which turned out to not be playing The Orpheum and now we’re slowly fading but oh! Julie saved us and we can touch now” thing, but now? 

Now it’s at level 100000000000 x 10000000000. Willie risked his afterlife for us. For me. Caleb already owns his soul so that only means that whatever punishment Willie gets, or has already gotten, could destroy him. And that hurts because he crossed him for me. If Willie had never met me, he’d be just fine. He’d be out here skateboarding at all his favorite places all over Los Angeles. Like that Justin Beaver’s house or whoever that was. I can’t just have that be taken away from him. Have his afterlife taken from him. I wouldn’t be able to exist with that thought nagging at the back of my head every single day and night. 

I’ve tried looking for him. Every day. I’ve gone to all of his usual spots. But he hasn't been anywhere. And I don’t know if it’s because he’s laying low or.....I just have to find him. There’s one place I haven’t tried yet. One place that I haven’t had time to go to, but do now.

The Hollywood Sign. He’s taken me there a couple times. I’m always afraid of falling, I mean I'm way past that, but that’s not what I meant. I have such a bad fear of heights, but when I'm there with Willie holding my hand or leaning into me or having his head on my shoulder, I forget that I’m even way high up from the ground. 

It’s different now. Now as I'm standing at the cliff on which the sign waits upon. My visions swirls as the city lights and sunset blurs together to create a scary abstract painting. Normally, I’d be entranced by the sight, in a good way, but with my stupid fear of heights, I'm entranced in a bad way. 

I shudder and get myself to step back from the edge. There’s no sign of Willie. I don’t see his skateboard or him anywhere. If he were here, I'd see his legs swinging from the top of the sign. I close my eyes tight, my right hand involuntarily making a fist before I send a small rock flying off the cliff with a kick of my foot.

He’s not here. He’s not here he’s not here he’s not--he’s not here and it’s my fault and I'm never going to find him and he’s just--

“Alex,” A soft voice comes from behind me. I close my eyes even tighter, so tight that I can feel the aching pulse behind my eye lids. My fingers grip onto the hem of my sweatshirt. He’s not here. He’s not here--It’s just my anxiety making me believe--

“Alex, hey, hey,” And then I feel it. The strange mixture of warm and cold wrapping around my body. No, it can’t be. I open my eyes to see that it is. It’s him. It’s really him right in front of me. 

“Willie.” I breathe and without even thinking, I launch myself towards him and fling my arms around him, pushing us both towards the ground, and bury my head into the crook of his neck. We stay like that, grabbing at each other to bring the other closer and closer, sobs and deep breathes between the both of us, for I don’t even know how long before I couldn’t hold my questions in any longer. 

“Willie I-you’re here. You-you’re--you’re ok!” I stutter, surprised that I could even form words and not letting go of the skateboarder in front of me. His voice shakes in amazement as he speaks.

“yeah, yeah I'm ok. Caleb he’s-he’s still mad, but I was able to get away. I’ve just been lying low. I wanted to come see you, but I didn’t--I didn’t want to bring Caleb and I thought...” His voice trails off then. I shake my head signaling to him that he doesn’t have to explain before I launch myself at him for a hug again. 

“But I’m here and you’re here and I just-” I tell him, my voice starting to give out. He nods against my shoulder, his hand placed at the middle of my back.

“I know. I missed you too, hotdog,” he says quietly into my ear, burying his head deeper against my shoulder. I can’t help, but hold him even tighter at the nickname, feeling relief for the first time in weeks. I was never fond of it, but I can tell you one thing: I’m fond of Willie. And I’m fond of this moment. This moment that I've been daydreaming about ever since the night of The Orpheum.

Don’t get me wrong. I still have a lot of questions (and anxiety). Where do we go from here? Are you free from the Hollywood Ghost Club? Does Caleb still own your soul? 

But for now? I think I’ll just keep holding on to him and never let go.


End file.
